House Panel Presses Travis County DA’s Office on Outside Influence After Garza Skips Hearing

Travis County District Attorney José Garza did not appear before a House committee Sept. 30 that spent more than seven hours examining whether donor-funded groups and consultants steer local prosecutors. A lawmaker moved to subpoena him. The chair declined to take up the motion, and the district attorney’s lone representative faced hours of pointed questions.

Rep. Mitch Little moved to “compel the attendance of District Attorney Jose Garza” before the House Select Committee on Governmental Oversight. Chair Cody Vasut, R–Angleton, said he would not entertain the motion “yet.” Anyone subpoenaed to testify against their will “may say something that may incriminate themselves” and gets immunity under state law, he said, and he preferred that Garza or his office come voluntarily. Garza sent a letter offering to meet privately. “I think he should meet with us publicly,” Vasut said.

The committee never voted. The charge, laid out by Vasut, asks members to evaluate how for-profit and nonprofit organizations and consultants take part in local prosecution. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dustin Burrows pointed to the hearing as the first public step when they called for more prosecutor accountability, as The Texas Dispatch previously reported, and the Dispatch outlined the charge in its preview.

Rep. Ellen Troxclair pressed Vasut on the absence. “So his presence was specifically requested by a committee that is charged with oversight of district attorney offices,” she said. Vasut replied that Garza was invited and that members had his letter.

The sharpest case came from Sean Kennedy of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, who wrote a September 2025 report titled “Outsourcing Justice.” “Taxpayers and citizens do not control the Texas criminal justice system. Dark money interests and their paid consultants do,” he said. He said the Wren Collective, a consulting group, advised or counted as clients 40 prosecutors, and that Travis County felony conviction rates have fallen by a third or more. “Right now, less than 30% of all felony cases brought in Travis County Court result in a felony conviction,” he said. Those are his figures; the committee did not verify them.

Little cast the pattern in harsher terms. “What’s going on here bears all the hallmarks of a racketeer influenced corrupt organization,” he told a panel of crime victims’ relatives and advocates. “What we’re dealing with here is a machine.”

Rep. Christian Manuel pushed back on the focus on billionaire donor George Soros. “We don’t have anyone from George Soros team here to combat or to show their information,” he said. “I just don’t understand how everything is about George Soros.” Kennedy answered that the issue is access, not ideology: “If you can use those two nickels to walk into any DA’s office in this country and have power over how the cases are charged and what a specific case’s outcome is, I think we can both agree that’s a problem.”

The Travis County District Attorney’s office sent Stephanie Gharakhanian. Her written statement said “third party actors have absolutely no involvement in individual case decisions made by this office,” and called the claim that the office refuses to prosecute violent crime “flat out false.” Little asked whether she wrote the five-page statement after members discussed subpoenaing her boss. She said she did not write it in two hours and that Garza worked on it and signed it.

Asked about a nondisclosure agreement between the office and the Wren Collective, she said, “I have no personal knowledge of a nondisclosure agreement.” Little asked who does. “I’m not sure,” she said. Little also pressed her on a defendant whose probation revocation motion the office withdrew before he was later accused of murder; she said she was not aware of who could speak to that case.

Rep. Brooks Landgraf said it “does seem like you’re being somewhat evasive.” She replied that she wanted to give “truthful and accurate information.” Rep. Richard Hayes was blunter: “I’m embarrassed for the Travis County District Attorney’s office. And thank you for not testifying today because that’s what you’ve done. You have not testified.”

Not every exchange followed that script. Rep. Erin Zwiener asked the chair to confirm the hearing was not about “every single bit of operation of a specific local DA’s office” but about “undue influence.” Vasut affirmed the scope is “limited to what is in that charge.”

Witnesses offered remedies. Kennedy urged the committee to subpoena records first, including Garza’s communications with donors, consultants and activist groups; Vasut said a list of what to request “would be well received.” Former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire said it is “not true that a district attorney can’t talk publicly about why they declined to prosecute a case.” A Right on Crime witness said lawmakers should strengthen the removal process in House Bill 17 of 2023, which governs removal of prosecutors for official misconduct, or write something easier to apply. One member urged a time-limited attorney general unit to handle serious crimes.

The hearing was interim; no vote was taken. Vasut closed the day promising a follow-up hearing. Prosecutor accountability is already shaping up as a signature fight for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.